1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to items for the infant nursery. More specifically, infant crib mobiles.
2. Description of Related Art
The purpose of the infant crib mobile is to give the newborn infant something pleasant and stimulating to look at and/or listen to while spending its waking hours in the crib.
Crib mobiles are suspended from a hanger that attaches to either the crib bars, railing, headboard, or wall and hangs over the mattress area of the crib. Crib mobiles display amusing, often colorful objects or characters that are suspended from its arms, or appendages, and are the visual focal point for the infant. Examples of these objects or characters are flowers, rainbows, stars, mirrors, animals and clowns. They range in complexity from a simple flat silhouette, to three dimensional shapes and stuffed, soft characters such as bunnies, bears or clowns.
The arms from which these objects or characters are suspended, can be either two independant arms crossing at their center points, or four arms radiating from a center hub. An example of another type of appendage would be a carrousel canopy. The arms or appendages with their objects or characters can remain stationary or revolve slowly when powered by a wind-up motor/music works or small electric D.C. motor.
The overall effect of the above is to pacify and entertain the infant while stimulating its newly developing visual and hearing senses.
The present generation of crib mobiles attain, to a point, the affore mentioned purposes; however, in a darkened nursery at nap or bedtime, the visual element of the mobile is somewhat diminished.
The mobile that addresses the lack of visibility of objects or characters in darkened conditions is the "Disney Starglow Musical Mobile" by Mattel Toy Company. This mobile utilizes a small light located at the crib rail attachment bracket that shines up to illuminate the bottom of the objects as they slowly revolve. While this is a step in the right direction, and illustrates the need to illuminate the objects or characters in the dark, the "Lighted Fiber Optics Mobile" takes the ultimate step by having it's objects or characters EMIT light individually.